By Francis Wakefield
The New People's Army (NPA) denied that they had a hand in two separate bomb threats in Mapua University and University of Santo Tomas (UST).
The Information Bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) made the statement after bomb threats sent through text messages claimed that a bomb was planted by the New People's Army (NPA) in Mapua University Tuesday night.
A similar threat was received in UST on Wednesday morning.
The NPA, however, vehemently denied issuing such cowardly threats that disrupted classes and work in the campuses.
"The NPA furthermore clarifies that it does not engage in such acts which in any way threaten to harm civilians," it stated.
On Tuesday night, Mapúa University in Manila suspended its classes and office work following a bomb threat. Police said that the university was negative from any explosive and hazardous materials and the threat turned out to be a false alarm.
In a Twitter post, Anakbayan-UST said that a text message claimed that a bomb was set to explode in the UST campus on Wednesday noon.
“Dahil di na natuloy ang aming pagsabog kahapon sa Mapua University ay itutuloy namin ito sa UST Manila sa dapit alas dose ng tanghali. Ipasa ito at mabuhay ang New People’s Army ,” the text read.
According to Patricia Denice Torres, 19, a medical technology student of UST, she received the bomb threat message at around 7:54 a.m. She reported the incident at around 8:03 a.m. to Joseph Badinas, Security Commander of UST.
Arnold Santos, Police Chief Inspector of the Manila Police District’s (MPD) Explosive and Ordinance Division (EOD) section told the Manila Bulletin that he immediately forwarded the said text received by Torres in their group chat.
No explosives were found after a paneling operation conducted by MPD-EOD at 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday.
Classes and work were not suspended in UST.
Santos also said that it was the fourth time that UST received a bomb threat